Amanda Russell wins the women\'s two-mile for the second-straight year and John Ciccarelli takes the men\'s 5K.
RICHMOND, Va. - The University of Richmond swept the men\'s and women\'s races against Virginia Commonwealth and Hampton at the 2005 Spider Alumni Open held Saturday.Richmond junior Amanda Russell (North Bay, Ontario) defended her Spider Alumni Open title, finishing first in 11:06.79 in the women\'s two-mile race, while Spider senior John Ciccarelli (South Bury, Conn.) won the men\'s 5K in 15:11.3.
The Spider women\'s team took the top three places and boasted five of the first six and seven of the first nine runners to cross the finish line.
\"It\'s exciting to season the efforts of the last two weeks of preseason come together,\" Richmond women\'s cross country coach Lori Taylor said. \"It was nice to see us run as a team, that\'s going to be key for us if we want to win a conference championship and place in the top 10 at the NCAA Regionals. We have to run tight in a pack.\"
Sophomore Kylee Schuler (Chambersburg, Pa.) finished second behind Russell with a time of 11:18.90 and freshman Katie Van Horn (Glendora, N.J.) took third in 11:20.36. Richmond alum Lauren Manero finished fourth in 11:20.36, followed by current freshmen Mary Bertram (Salisbury, N.C.) in fifth at 11:43.10 and Emily Nagle (Annapolis, Md.) in sixth at 11:44.97.
Sophomore Kate Merrill (Durham, N.C.) took eighth in 11:52.30 and sophomore Shelby Faircloth (Centennial, Colo.) followed in ninth in 11:54.61.
\"Today 38 seconds separated our top five runners and 48 seconds separated the top seven,\" Taylor said. \"We need to get it to about 38 seconds separating our top seven if we want to accomplish our goals.\"
On the men\'s side, sophomore Hunter Willis (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) was the second Richmond runner to cross the finish line after Ciccarelli, taking sixth in a time of 16:01.10 and leading a pack of Spider runners that would secure the victory.
\"John Ciccarelli was in good form today,\" Richmond men\'s cross country coach Steve Taylor said. \"He appears to be further along then he was at this time last year.\"
Sophomore Peter Norquist (Shamong, N.J.) followed in seventh (16:02.03), freshman Sean McKinney (Downingtown, Pa.) took eighth (16:04.48) and freshman Mike Gaubinger (Northampton, Mass.) finished ninth (16:05.22).
\"It was good start to the season,\" Steve Taylor said. \"Last year VCU beat us rather easily, but we ran as a team today and we had some freshmen and sophomores step up. We stayed close and worked together, that\'s what we need to do to be successful.\"
Freshman Garrett Graham (Brevard, N.C.) finished 16th and freshman Tim Henry (Voorhees, N..J.) took 18th.
Richmond alum Tim Caramore of the class of 2004 finished fourth in a time of 15:53.16.
The Richmond men\'s and women\'s cross country teams return to action next Saturday at the University of Virginia Invitational at 10 a.m.